The present invention, in some embodiments thereof, relates to radar systems and more particularly to systems and methods for detecting, tracking and monitoring the spatial location of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
An unmanned aerial vehicle or unmanned aircraft vehicle (UAV), sometimes also referred to as an unpiloted air system (UAS), an unpiloted aerial vehicle (UAV) or a remotely piloted aircraft (RPA), is an aircraft without a human pilot aboard. According to U.S. International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), UAVs are classified into two types: (i) autonomous aircraft; and (ii) remotely piloted aircraft system (PRAS), which is subject to civil regulation under ICAO and under the relevant national aviation authority. The typical launch and recovery method of an unmanned aircraft is by the function of an automatic system or an external operator on the ground. Drones are one example of UAVs. UAVs are usually deployed for military and special operation applications, but also used in a small but growing number of civil applications such as policing and firefighting and other nonmilitary security work such as inspection of power stations or pipelines. UAVs are often preferred for missions that are too “dull, dirty or dangerous” for manned aircraft.
In high-density urban environments, as well as in smaller cities and rural areas, demand on ground transportation infrastructure has increased and continues to increase to the point that many metropolitan areas are heavily congested and road transportation networks are inefficient. The inefficiencies are also dramatic in cities in many emerging countries or other locations where ground infrastructure has not scaled quickly enough to follow the population increase or the growth in the economy. Hence, often enough, access to physical goods is hindered by the inflexible, inefficient (in energy, time and cost) transportation solutions of the present day.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2014/0032034, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety as if fully disclosed herein, discloses systems for air transportation of goods and/or people using autonomous and/or remotely piloted UAVs. The systems containing a plurality of autonomous electric flying vehicles comprising a plurality of automated ground stations configured to communicate with the UAVs, and logistics software that operates the system. The aerial vehicles comprise a fixed wing and one or more rotors, and a package interface capable of accepting a package for transport. A new, scalable method of transportation that would reduce the demand on road infrastructure is desirable. Modern digital connectedness increases the need for disruption of the current way goods and people are transported. As modern transportation solutions have significantly lagged behind the digital revolution, UAVs emerge as a promising means for aerial delivery of goods.
Inexpensive, computerized flight controllers have made it comparatively easy to fly multi-rotor systems. Because they are capable of vertical-take-off-and-landing (VTOL), and relatively compact, UAVs can be deployed essentially anywhere, and in the hands of a skilled pilot, they can be maneuvered nearly anywhere.
UAVs be of a fixed wing, hybrid vehicle, or rotorcraft where rotorcraft may be of a single-rotor, dual rotor, trirotor, quadrorotor (quadcopter), hexarotor, or octorotor design.
Some known, commercially available UAVs are Phantom 3 by DJI, Q500 4K by Yuneec and Solo by 3DR.
To meet the growing need and the growing demand to use UAVs, national authorities such as the U.S. federal aviation administration (FAA) are advancing legislation that will make use of UAVs manageable. It is expected that some of the restrictions that will be imposed by the FAA is the requirement that UAVs be equipped with at least two of: a transponder, a localization module such as global positioning system (GPS), inertial navigation system (INS) and the like, satellite communication module, and/or cellular communication module, so as to enable direct identification and spatial location of UAVs as well as communicating with UAVs. To name a few, an example for commercially available transponders may be the GTX330, GTX333 and GTX323 by Garmin; some known, commercially available GPS modules are NEO-M8M by Ublox and Jupiter SE868-AS by Telit; some known, commercially available INS modules are BD935-INS by Trimble and BNO055 by Bosch; some known, commercially available satellite communication modules are RockBLOCK Mkt by Sparkfun and GSP-1720 by Globalstar; and some known, commercially available cellular communication modules are Sara-G3 by Ublox and LE910 series by Telit.
One of the major technical problems that may, at least partially, hinder advancing the legal operation of UAVs is the current lack of an efficient way to monitor their aerial traffic, namely, the ability to detect, track, and spatially locate one or more flying UAVs, at real time.
A further technical problem concerning the operation of UAVs is controlling the flying routes of UAVs, while taking into consideration, at every given moment, the spatial location of other objects flying in the UAV's immediate vicinity or objects projecting from the ground so as in times of emergency, immediate notification and instructions may be provided to one or several UAVs simultaneously in order to control UAV traffic to avoid these obstacles.
All of the above mentioned technical problems suggest a widely recognized need for, and it would be highly advantageous to have a radar system of a small form factor compared to known dimensions of common radar systems and a method for broadband reception and bearing measurement of UAVs both in azimuth and elevation performed in the digital domain rather than in the analog domain so as to avoid highly complex, expensive analog methods and means. Such a system with affordable costs and low radiated power, so as to comply with urban safety regulations, along with the ability of grid operation, would address the technical problems stated above.